Awards and Media

Song of the Year 2018

Amy Hindman

Once

The Song of the Year songwriting contest has awarded Amy Hindman the Runner Up placement in the song contest. Song of the Year receives entries from all over the world and only the top songwriters receive a Semi-Finalist placement in the songwriting competition.

Song of the Year 2018

Amy Hindman

A Prayer

The Song of the Year songwriting contest has awarded Amy Hindman the Semi-Finalist placement in the song contest. Song of the Year receives entries from all over the world and only the top songwriters receive a Semi-Finalist placement in the songwriting competition.

The Song of the Year songwriting contest has awarded Amy Hindman the Runner Up placement in the song contest. Song of the Year receives entries from all over the world and only the top songwriters receive a Runner Up placement in the songwriting competition.

Song of the Year 2012

Amy Hindman

​ In My Waking Dream

​The Song of the Year songwriting contest has awarded Amy Hindman the Semi-Finalist placement in the song contest. Song of the Year receives entries from all over the world and only the top songwriters receive a Semi-Finalist placement in the songwriting competition.

The Song of the Year songwriting contest has awarded Amy Hindman the Semi-Finalist placement in the song contest. Song of the Year receives entries from all over the world and only the top songwriters receive a Semi-Finalist placement in the songwriting competition.

Honorable Mention Award 2012

Gandhi and King: Becoming the Dream

The Song of the Year songwriting contest has awarded Amy Hindman the Honorable Mention placement in the song contest. Song of the Year receives entries from all over the world and only the top songwriters receive an Honorable Mention placement in the songwriting competition.​Your songwriting was reviewed by Sting, Paul McCartney, Rihanna & more

“More information at www.amyhindman.com“

‘This is a beautiful song, sensitively and melodiously sung. May it touch millions of hearts around the world.’Arun Gandhi, Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi

In My Waking Dream, Amy's third CD,contains four of Amy's songs winning top awards!

ANACORTES AMERICAN

skagit valley herald

PRESS RELEASE

Amy Hindman to Release Third CD: In My Waking Dream

Amy Hindman to Release Third CD: In My Waking Dream

Amy moved to La Conner in 1979, several years after she graduated from Whitworth College in Spokane. Her college buddy, Suzi, was living in Seattle, and wanted to check out a restaurant for sale in the area. They were both fans of Tom Robbins, local author, and after reading Another Roadside Attraction and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, two of Amy’s favorite Robbins’ books, Amy said, “yeah . . . let’s go check out La Conner and see what it’s like.” She swears she was NOT stalking Tom Robbins, although she did meet him at a book signing years later, and got an autographed copy of Still Life with Woodpecker.

When she got to the lazy, quiet town of La Conner in mid-January, standing in the middle of First Street, she pronounced “I’m moving here.” Suzi said, “what, are you nuts? What are you gonna do?”“I’m gonna sing.”

Amy says of that time: “I was so drawn to La Conner and really felt I was home. I had a house to move into in March of that year.” (Incidentally, in 1979, La Conner’s police cars were Le Car’s!!) Below is one of the original La Conner Le Car's with our present Mayor of La Conner at the wheel :)

She had graduated from Whitworth College with a BA in English and a minor in “The American Experience”, a study of sociology, philosophy and history, as well as a secondary teaching degree. In 1975, there were tons of English majors entering the teaching field, and Amy had an interview to teach English in the very small community of Prosser, Washington, where there were 400 applicants for one job! She was one of 4 interviewed, and didn’t get the job. The retiring teacher was very disappointed that Amy had not been hired to take his position. Amy was a little disappointed, and also relieved, as this gave her a clear sign to return to Spokane and pursue her music and other passions.

As a 28 year old, she had worked in group homes with adolescent teens, adult drug rehabilitation homes, bookstores, racket clubs, and as a Campfire Girl counselor, and eventually as a Child Development Counselor, working in Skagit County, with children who had been abused or neglected, or had suffered some major loss in their lives, causing them to act out behaviorally.

When asked if she, in her early career, wrote her own songs, she nonchalantly said “no”, and never had tried or pushed herself to do so. She had been singing songs of her favorite musicians at the time: Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Judy Collins, The Eagles, and many more.

“When I moved to La Conner, I had written one song. Songs started flowing through me when I lived on the Skagit Bay, on Pull & Be Damned Road, outside of La Conner in 1979-1980.” She wrote a song at that time called “Puget Symphony”, entered it in a regional songwriting contest, and it took First Place. That song and two other recent award winners will be on the new CD. The other two songs won awards in a Worldwide Songwriting Competition, entitled “Song of the Year”. She received “Honorable Mention” for her song “Gandhi and King: Becoming the Dream”: the judges included Paul McCartney, Sting, Rihanna, and many other music industry professionals. Then, last week, Amy was informed that another winner was “Seattle Blues / Island Hues”, which took a SEMI-FINALIST placement.

When she released her 1st Album, back in 1992, she received a phone call from Dorothy Ives, who had been given her recording by Laura Burton, of Burton Jewelers in Anacortes, inviting her to sing with the infamous Burl Ives. Dorothy said “Your voice is beautiful! Would you like to sing with Burl?” Dorothy did not know that the invitation came on Amy’s 40th birthday, while living in her log cabin on Guemes Island, her home for 6 years.

Singing with Burl Ives and Company “On the Old Front Porch” has been one of the highlights of her life, she says. The two concerts were at Skagit ValleyCollege in 1993, with an audience of 2000 people, a Benefit for the Skagit Enhancement Foundation, and Amy sang a solo for each concert, one of the songs being “Puget Symphony”. Randy Sparks, who started the “The New Christy Minstrels”, was part of the concert, and the MC was Angie Dickinson, who introduced Amy to the audience.

Amy’s music is not only rich with her experience of the Skagit Valley, but of her very unique childhood, growing up in Iowa, Korea, Texas, Thailand, and Colorado, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and Naval Chaplain / Captain (before her birth). Her father was in the Navy on a ship during World War II, knew what it was like to be away from home in a time of war, and had the desire and passion to move to Korea, to create a ministry to servicemen overseas, with his wife, Bertha. The Hindman family lived in Seoul, Korea for three years when Amy was 5, with her 3 older brothers and sisters, and they all attended Seoul Foreign School. The eldest sister, Carolyn, went to college in Japan for a year.

In 1966, they were living in Denton, Texas, and shortly after Amy’s mother died of cancer (when she was 11), her family and new stepmother, Billie, moved to Bangkok, Thailand for 3 years.

Amy is the youngest of five, and has had a very “colorful” life, as she describes it: not dull at all. Her brothers and sisters are talented musicians, actors, writers, teachers and quilters?? (Amy didn’t get THAT gene, & says at 5 years of age she was playing with her grandmother’s sewing machine and proceeded to put the needle right through her thumb). She says she knew then, that sewing and homemaking wasn’t to be her area: sometimes you just know.

Amy’s first 2 CD’s (Beneath the Surface, 1992, and Beyond the Edge, 2000), were recorded at Binary Recording Studio in Bellingham, and the new one was recorded in her own garage studio, here in Shelter Bay, La Conner. The studio was built by local angels, Ralph Westover, Ken Kraemer, Richard Mattrass, and Lance, Amy’s neighbor. The final mixing was done with Phil Heaven at Soundings of the Planet in Bellingham.

The Album contains 11 songs, 6 of which are originals. Some of these original songs are all written about our beautiful area:Puget SymphonyA Kalaloch SongSeattle Blues / Island HuesSong of the EarthAmy plans, after the CD is released, to start work immediately on her 4th CD, entitled “Moon of Listening Woman”. The songs are already written. Her future plans are to work on writing her book about her life experiences.

The In My Waking Dream Album Release Party is scheduled for August 17th,2013, Saturday from 1-4 at the Shelter Bay Clubhouse in La Conner. Live Music is at 2:00 (with some of the studio musicians). Admission is free, all are invited, and CD’s will be available at that time.

If you want to catch Amy playing music at some local venues, these are some upcoming dates: 2013

Unity Coffee House in Bellingham: July 12th, Friday at 7:00, Amy at 7:40

Washington Sips in La Conner: July 20th, Saturday at 7:00 & August 31, Saturday at 7:00